While in-person celebrations were on hold this year due to the pandemic, several children’s book publishers held virtual parties as staffers (and even some of their pets) showed off costumes inspired by favorite characters and books, both classic and contemporary. We’ve gathered a selection of photos from the festivities.

The finance team at HarperCollins Children’s Books channeled Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

HarperCollins staffer Shae McDaniel’s cat as T’Challa, aka the Black Panther.

Suzanne Murphy, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, in ladybug getup.

Quill Tree Books staffers pantomimed a muted Zoom call.

Tomas Palacios at HarperCollins dressed as Joe Exotic, with a little help from his dog.

Simon & Schuster senior production editor Clare McGlade and her growing family as Lucy Ruth Cummins’s Stumpkin.

Dressed as the Simon & Schuster office building in Manhattan, which clearly misses its occupants, senior managing editor Jenica Nasworthy, aka “King Floor IV,” performed a parody of the Hamilton song "You’ll Be Back."

S&S art director Laura Roode’s dog Sugar as one of Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers’s crayons.

S&S publicity manager Audrey Gibbons’s son Wesley Dean French as a fox fit for a fairytale.

S&S production editor Alison Velea’s dog as “The Little Furmaid.”

The publicity team at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group got into the Halloween spirit with a variety of playful costumes, including “Frenshaw”: Katherine Applegate’s Crenshaw in a beret. Photo: Morgan Kane.

Pictured is the winning group costume for the annual Candlewick Costume Contest: the “KnowBe4 Bad Guys,” as per the company’s security awareness training. Staffers dressed up as all sorts of online identity theft scams, including phishing, “trusted senders,” and clicking a shady link because your password has expired. (Top row, from l.): Dana Eger, Raquel Stetcher, Phoebe Kosman, (middle row, from l.) Jamie Tan, Karen Walsh, Ally Russell, (bottom row, from l.) Sawako Shirota, Stephanie Pando, and Rachel Johnstone.

Ginny Greene at Candlewick dressed up as her hero, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, winning second place in the costume contest.

Cutie the Clown interviewed costume contestant Batgirl during Chronicle’s Virtual Halloween Variety Hour.

Chronicle’s Guouliette Capra, founding member of the Easy Bake Coven.

In an interesting twist, a Chronicle staffer dressed as a challah bread for the occasion.

Holiday House and Pixel+Ink’s Boos and Books Bash included their annual costume contest. Guest judge Richard Fairgray, author of Pixel+Ink middle-grade graphic novel series Black Sand Beach, presided over the festivities dressed as R.L. Stine. Employees dressed up as characters from in-house favorites, including Black Sand Beach 1: Are You Afraid of the Light?; Toasty by Sarah Hwang; Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts by Dianne K. Salerni; The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West; and Field Trip to the Ocean Deep by John Hare.